"The Chief Minister and Minister for Home Affairs have emerged from this saga with no disciplinary case, no Chief Officer, a pending report from a QC likely to be critical of the Island’s Government, and a bill for over a million pounds. They are not well placed to criticise the actions of others" Deputy Bob Hill.............................................
Trevor Pitmans Blog.......................................BALDTRUTH"

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Scrutiny Review - The Findings- 3 -Jersey State Media

COVERING UP THE JERSEY HISTORICAL CHILD ABUSE INVESTIGATION

LET US NOW LOOK AT THE ROLE OF THE JERSEY STATE MEDIA

FIRST UP CTV

THERE IS A CONNECTION BETWEEN CTV, JOURNALIST DAVID ROSE & D/SUPT MICK GRADWELL

As you might be aware D/Supt Mick Gradwell declined to give evidence to the Home Affairs Scrutiny Sub Panel (HASSP). Quite remarkable really when you see what he gets up to during this posting. CTV also declined to give evidence to the 'HASSP'. One of the main reasons these two didn't come and give evidence is simple (in my opinion). They knew they had been caught out. Someone started asking questions. How could they explain the 2 programs they aired in September 2009. I want to explain to my readers exactly what is going on here hence the interview with VFC.

First up you must remember that the HISTORICAL CHILD ABUSE INVESTIGATION was still live in 2009. In fact it didn't get closed down until the end of 2010

That's what makes the actions of Mick Gradwell & CTV appear even more despicable than they already are.

So there we have the two programs. What jumps out at me straightaway and differs from the normal CTV offering is how professionally the Gradwell Interview is conducted. This is a properly staged interview. Gradwell has his Sunday best on - he is sitting in a nice studio - he has moody lighting - two camera angles and a very high opinion of himself.

One very important factor is that we don't hear who is conducting the Interview. We only hear Gradwell talking. Where was the challenge as to what Gradwell was saying? There isn't any. This is shambolic. The whole two episodes are nothing more than "OPINION MANAGEMENT" The two programs were brilliantly done. Lets be honest here. There can be no doubt that people believed the waffle coming out of Gradwells mouth. The reporter even talks about findings that was in the BDO Report. This was all staged. I just cant see how it was done without the full co-operation of CTV. .

On the 4th October 2009 one month after these programs were aired Journalist David Rose wrote an article in the Daily Mail called "Bungled Jersey Child Abuse probe branded a £20million Shambles".

This is the infamous article where Mick Gradwell was leaking drafts of Police Consultant Mike Kelletts work to David Rose. This is not a coincidence . The CTV and Rose articles all in the space of one month is not a coincidence. This was a properly managed media blitz on Opinion Managing the people of Jersey's take on the 'HCAE'. Who organised this? There isn't a chance that Mick decided to do this all on his own. Now do you see why he stayed away from the Scrutiny hearings. What could he say? How could he justify it? He would have to take the blame. That is why it's important that CTV get dragged before the 'COE' and explain their reporting on such an important issue. They are not alone in their trashing stance. I will leave the JEP till last .

D/Supt Mick Gradwell was the Senior Investigating Officer of the 'HCAE'

The Abuse Survivors trusted this man to do the best by them. He gives it large with CTV and leaks to the man trashing the 'HCAE'. Have any of our local media tried to track him down and get an interview? He has got to explain himself on his abhorrent actions.

Remember what Karin Rankine said in her letter to Ben Shenton

"An increasing number of online community sites, blog sites and other content sources will unquestionably find their place within society. However the fundamental principles which underpin the delivery of authoritative and credible news are unlikely to change.

Those principles of quality journalism which encompass accuracy, impartiality, fairness and legal knowledge underpin the role that the ‘traditional’ media plays in our society and is the basis of those news services provided by existing public service broadcasters and which remain highly valued within our society."

"So while the internet has challenged the idea of journalism, the need for in-depth research and reporting does not disappear. Our role as a public service broadcaster carries with it responsibilities to our viewers and to those involved in our reporting. And it is those responsibilities which distinguish our service from certain new types of ‘citizen media’ or blog sites that we see emerging at both a national and a local level."

These are some of the findings from the Scrutiny Sub Panel

The Whole Report can be read here. It is a must read for anyone who has an interest in the Jersey Historical Child Abuse Investigation

•It is clear from the evidence we have received that Mr. Gradwell was responsible for leaking information from draft sections of the work which Mr. Kellett had prepared for the BDO Alto review. The information was published in an article in the Mail on Sunday in October 2009 but it also appears to have been made available to Channel Television for a programme in September 2009. Mr. Gradwell also gave an interview to the Jersey Evening Post in which he voiced extensive negative comments on the investigation carried out by his predecessor which he labelled ‘a poorly managed mess’. The disclosure of information from the review of financial management was then part of a broader criticism of the investigation by Mr. Gradwell.

Mr. Gradwell’s views on the investigation were already well known. As Senior Investigating Officer he had been a key figure in the press conference on 12th November 2008 which had called into question the previous direction of the investigation.

Mr. Rose had previously written a number of other articles critical of Mr. Harper’s conduct of the investigation going back to May 2008 (18.05.08; 24.05.08, 15.11.08). In May 2008 he made a reference to the ‘leaked’ cost of the investigation (£6.5milion) but did not develop any criticism. In his article in November 2008 in which he interviewed Mr. Gradwell he stated that the police were said to be concerned at the enquiry’s profligate spending (eg decision to send two officers first class to Australia and a £100,000 bill for the use of Eddie the sniffer dog). In the course of the article he stated that he had obtained confidential documents including an email from Mr. Harper and the official log book kept by the forensic science team.

Channel Television also appeared to have access to information from the review into the financial management of the HDLG enquiry. In their two programmes in September 2009 they interviewed Mr. Gradwell on his retirement and referred to a number of specific details from the BDO Alto report such as dinners in specific London restaurants, overnight stays for one hour meetings and the failure to appoint a finance manager.

Below is the 3rd part of the CTV Interview with D/Supt Mick Gradwell. It is a must watch. His little smirk at the end is very telling.

All im doing here is looking at the evidence and forming an opinion. I believe that this was a proper orchestrated piece of 'OPINION MANAGEMENT'. This was not just the work of Mick Gradwell. The States Communication Unit could well have had a hand in this. This was about trashing an Abuse Investigation and protecting the image of Jersey. The most important people in all of this - The Abuse Survivors-

have been treated with utter disdain. When and where have the local media come out on their side? When and where have our local media done a balanced piece of reporting?

"Who do you believe authorised the management of this? Not anyone could draw Channel television to co-operate"

This is a very good question. I just don't know. It can only have come from the highest level of the Jersey Power Base. Lets remember that the JEP will also be pulled into this during the forthcoming posts. This is what a 'COE' needs to find out.

It shouldn't be left to a normal citizen of Jersey armed with a laptop to expose this.

A good guess would be the two top civil servant who were in control of Le Sueur and Walker, at that infamous press release at St Martins Parish hall.

Chief Executive Bill Ogley and Head of The States Communications Unit, can't think of his name, you know the one who tried to pull Senator Syvret out of his chair, then pulled down all of The States of Jersey glossy banners.

Thanks for re-posting the award winning lies from State Media. It is a good reminder of just how far off the truth they really went.

It does make one wonder what "neutral" viewers might think of those news broadcasts when most of them had to have been aware of the many teeth discovered there, which were publicly displayed and photographed. There were also those infamous (burned while fresh and fleshed) bones which was internationally reported evidence.

Prior to the Gradwell - Warcup cover up, there was a lot of hysterical and exaggerated coverage, to be sure, but there was real evidence depicted, which could not simply be explained away.

Viewers had to already know the voids were not too shallow for standing, because of the live film footage taken from the excavation.

Who in Jersey did not see the BBC coverage exposing that accused couple of abusers who hid out in France?

People talk. There were reportedly widespread rumors of shackles found by workers during remodeling, and reports of a request for lime, which after purchase and delivery, had been mysteriously placed in pits.

If islanders following the Haut De La Garenne coverage really believe what CTV reported here, they are a strange psychological curiosity.

As you may be aware i'm investigating the Jersey Child Abuse Cover-up and your station features heavily in this. My main concern at this present time is the interview you did with D/Supt Mick Gradwell in early September 2009. This interview went over 3 specials from the 1st to the 7th Septeber 2009. Could you please confirm to me that it was in fact CTV that interviewed Mick Gradwell. The reason for asking this is very straight forward. The guests normally get 30 seconds on the couch but this had a totally different feel. I have also noted the the voice of the person conducting the interview has been removed. I want to clear this up ASAP. The reason I ask is that I believe the States Communication Unit conducted the Interview and you just aired it.

He mentioned that people had been charged and repeatedly said what was there to cover up. Well, he's either lying there or he's being stupid. What was being covered up was that senior civil servants and other "important" people had been put in the frame by victims as abusers and other "important" figures, who were responsible for child safety, either failed in their jobs or actively colluded to cover up and ignore the crimes.

None of those charged came into these categories. That is what was being covered up Gradwell.

Excellent work, Rico, and you are a wise man to look further into Matt Tapp. He, or someone like him, will be the link between Jersey's power players, David Rose, and the press.

Mr Tapp may not be the individual responsible for the interview, and any number of professional image management specialists may have been involved, but the well coordinated campaign of spin against the abuse inquiry is right out of the best PR text books.

The use of repetition is a classic example of this kind of paid professional spin. Take how certain words are constantly repeated in multiple venues. For example, the coconut story has what news people call "legs," and it ran off on its own after being repeatedly bandied about to discredit the investigation.

Even the word, "shambles," was repeated often enough to cause lazy media consumers to make the assumption that it was demonstrably true.

Buzz words are vital to swaying public opinion. That's is how conservatives in the US took a publicly accepted tax on large inheritances, and made it sound like the wholesale theft from the deathbeds of the elderly, when they began calling it the "Death Tax."

So, there is a professional pattern to their patterns here, and you are probably well on your way to uncovering it. The oligarchy is not smart or sophisticated enough to have engineered much without highly paid help. Their never quite credible cover-up story will surely unravel.

" The oligarchy is not smart or sophisticated enough to have engineered much without highly paid help. Their never quite credible cover-up story will surely unravel. "

It looks like they turned to the North of England for some of that help, but I think London will have been involved in squeezing money out of the situation as well. The fixers always use contracters for their dirty work don't they?

From the media perspective one has to ask the question why was David Rose selling his story to the Daily Mail (Associated Newspapers)?A number of years ago I read a report on the island's demography (I know, get a life ...) and one of the notes that stood out was that the Daily Mail was the most read newspaper in the island.

Here is my reply from Karen Rankine. Im glad that this is cleared up as I can now add it to my evidence on the off chance I can give evidence to the Committee of Enquiry. CTV conducted the interview with Gradwell. This was conducted during a live investigation into child abuse. There was no challenge to what Mick Gradwell was saying.

Channel Television does not broadcast any news content filmed by either private or public sector communications professionals. Without exception, every interview has always been done by our own news team.

The name David Rose reminded me of the saga with Johann Hari...Read the comments section the name 'David Rose' may be an alias used by anyone in the media who puts pen to paper not wanting to be identified.

Karen Rankine claims it was not filmed by CTV outsiders, which is beside the point. There is a level of professional effort and media sophistication evident in this particular news coverage which is not seen in regular CTV segments. Even if the show, as we suspect, had been carefully stage managed and scripted by professional image consultants, it would have been filmed by the station's own crew. Image consultants make these things happen all the time, and can devote resources to helping a TV segment appear world class, and award worthy, yet never violate the policy Karen Rankine purports to uphold. Common media practice, actually.

Look at how the local media have reported on the 'HCAE' and opinion managed the good people of Jersey it's no different in the case of Stuart Syvret. What is happening in court and what is being reported are two different things. This has got to stop. Look what at what is happening in the UK with the accredited press. This also needs action from a political level. One of our politicians needs to address this issue ASAP.

In July 2011 New Statesman legal correspondent David Allen Green wrote on his personal blog that in January 2005 a Wikipedia user had discovered that a Wikipedia editor, David Rose, using the sockpuppet account 'David r from meth productions' shared an IP address with The Independent newspaper.[45] On the same day Nick Cohen in The Spectator[46] wrote that he had been attacked on Wikipedia by David Rose following a dispute with Johann Hari, as had Cristina Odone, Telegraph columnist[47] and Oliver Kamm, the Times leader writer.[48] Cohen also wrote that Hari's own Wikipedia entry was edited by Rose "to make him seem one of the essential writers of our times".[46]

Rico, has anyone challenged your point of view yet? Im also surprised that Mr Gradwell hasn't contacted you and requested that you stop slurring his good name. Has he contacted you? Has anyone contacted you.

I'd quite like to have a word with Mick Gradwell myself. I was really hurt by what he said in that video, and especially the little smirk on his face at the end. How dare he be the judge of wether an investigation into institutional child abuse is over, when there's still people like me who haven't even had any apology, but had a gutful of repeated malicious vindictive persecution, and don't even feel like they have any access to the judicial system on account of being a VICTIM of serious crime!

So if Mick Gradwell is reading this - as I have no doubt that he will be - will you please get in touch with me as well as Rico, because I want to know exactly what you meant by that little speech of yours in that CTV video, and I also want to know who the interviewer was.

I left Jersey many years ago but have just stumbled across the local blog scene out of interest.

Can I just say how pleased that people like you are finally calling it like it really is. Its very refreshing to hear open and honest critiques of the way both government and media have been allowed to operate without impugnity for decades.

NATIONAL newspapers knowingly ran misleading stories about children being killed and buried at Haut de la Garenne to sell more copies, the Leveson inquiry into phone hacking heard this week.

Journalists sent to the Island could have told editors across Fleet Street that the reports were ‘crap’, but they would have run them anyway, it was alleged.

The evidence was given by leading Guardian investigative journalist Nick Davies, who said that his employers were not exempt from letting ‘commercial considerations’ influence news judgment.

It was Mr Davies, a veteran critic of the way journalists ride roughshod over the truth in the feeding frenzy over big stories, who revealed that murder victim Milly Dowler’s mobile phone had been hacked by the News of the World.

nick davies would do well to examine the way so much of the news coverage of haut de la garenne was inaccurate. lenny harper's words were grossly exaggerated by the tabloid press, and the local Jersey state media knowingly used that to discredit the abuse investigation leaving the truth impossible to find anywhere except the blogs. we should all write to nick davies with facts and links, not emotion or opinion.

"nick davies would do well to examine the way so much of the news coverage of haut de la garenne was inaccurate. lenny harper's words were grossly exaggerated by the tabloid press,"

Absolutely, but Mr. Harper did little, or nothing to counteract the inaccurate and sensational coverage. The SOJP made a couple of protestations in specific instances, I believe, but didn't fully pursue them.

Mr Harper continued with his policy of regular, revelatory press-conferences and briefings.

While he was always very careful not to make statements of fact, but always talked in terms such as "we believe may...." "could indicate that....etc," he seemed content to let the media interpret what he told them as they saw fit.

His aim in this, as I believe he stated later, was to keep child-abuse at HDLG and in Jersey at the forefront of public consciousness via the media, so as to encourage further victims and witnesses to come forward.

He must bear a large part of the responsibility for allowing the sensational and inaccurate press coverage to have continued as it did.

One clear and definite statement from him about the "finds" would have stopped it, but would have cost him the coverage he seemed so keen to achieve.

If he had strongly and clearly refuted what the media were doing with the story, they would simply have lost interest, packed up and moved on.

Lenny did his best. The whole horrid fiasco has been an eye opener for him, and Graham Power, as well as the rest of us.

He might have been a tough streetwise cop, but how was he to know the depths of utter depravity these creatures are prepared to sink to?

Lenny is a decent man, and he did his best to help the victims of the HDLG abuse, but the way all the sheer determination of the gangsters to cover it all up is so shocking, anyone caught up in it all doesnt know which way to turn. It all reminds me of when I was a schoolgirl and we used to play a game in the gym where we were blindfolded and spun round and round and had to catch people by tagging them. The girls had a merry time of it, teasingly going so close and then swiftly rushing out the way, and trying to disguise their voices, and sneaking around.

Its hard for all of us. These wicked people are very cunning. Honest decent people find it hard to believe that anyone could be so cunning.

Lenny probably did try to tell lots of people that we dont know about, I have written thousands of letters, so have other people. We all get treated the same, anyone who opposes institutional child abuse, they try to gag all of us, even policemen like Lenny and Graham.

"One clear and definite statement from him about the "finds" would have stopped it"

There WAS collegen found in the scull shaped piece of alleged coconut. There were charred bones and teeth found.

There was nothing amiss with the way Lenny handled the medioa attention at all. You need to go back and read what Lenny actually said at the time, and stop relying on the Richard Webster and his BFMS Friends version of events.

"While he was always very careful not to make statements of fact, but always talked in terms such as "we believe may...." "could indicate that....etc," he seemed content to let the media interpret what he told them as they saw fit."

Even when Lenny would not confirm 'shackles' were found, the JEP still went ahead and printed it to sensationalise the story!

Lenny did a great job in getting so many abusers to come forward with evidence, he should be congratulated. His job was to catch criminals, not mother cuddle the media. Far worse was the way that Gradwell went ahead and leaked info that damaged the investigation and as much as Lenny tried to get the media to correct wrongful reporting, the press did not listen!!

Take note of Gradwell's choice of words in the final interview segment. The accusation that those who are kicking up a fuss are out to "destroy Jersey".

At the very least that's an incredibly odd concern to be raised by someone almost fresh off the boat. What's more interesting is the sheer coincidence that since the Haute de la Garenne story was exposed we've seen that same phrase (or slight variations thereof) used exclusively within local politics by Establishment figures to rubbish the views or opinions of those who dare take a stance opposing the Establishment line.

Which itself raises the question, how many coincidences does it take before the coincidences stop being coincidence?

If we accept the Establishment line as unquestionable fact then we can only assume Jersey is unique on the entire planet in facing a situation which on numerous levels involving numerous people across numerous related issues has appeared to be on numerous occasions 'not quite right', but is in fact a wholly transparent and 100% above-board state of affairs.

The only problem being, that same Establishment would have us believe, local malcontent conspiracy theorists who have engaged upon a vendetta to shaft, damage or destroy Jersey for completely unspecified reasons.

SS in jail for xmas!!!have £100.00 to contribute towards fine payment someone give a place to send to please,wish it could be whole amount but its tough out here.In fact should go & join him !!!Serous offer joking aside.

I don't think Stuart would want us to pay that fine. I think he would rather do the time in prison than hand over that money, or have any of his friends handing it over. I think Stuart would see it as an admission that he had done sonething wrong to be fined for.

Let them keep him in jail. He's safe there, from all their bullying, I was getting worried over his health, because I know what how ill it makes a person to be subjected to malicious vindictive persecution. Like Rico said, this is the first rest he has had since 2007, he's eating well, going to the gym ect. He's not having to watch his back constantly, or having to deal with death threats ect.

I wont pay a single penny to getting Stuart out, because I respect his feelings far too much. He would be so cross if he thought those criminals were sqeezing money out of any of the Pindown survivors to go into their coffers!I would rather spend any spare money on buying and distributing copies of Treasure Islands by Nicholas Shaxton. I think Stuart would be well pleased if we did that instead!

Will people spend the price of a Christmas card on printing it out a few times and distributing it round Jersey this Christmas? I know Stuart would really appreciate something like that, it would be as good as giving him a present and more appreciated by paying his undeserved fine!